Can you name the longest river in North America? No, it isn’t the
Mississippi. The correct answer is the Missouri. It starts on the western edge
of Montana and flows east partway through North Dakota before turning south. It
continues south through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa; cuts
through the north-east corner of Kansas; and flows east again through Missouri
before joining the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis.

The Missouri River is deep and wide and makes a great road
for river travel. No wonder Lewis and Clark chose to follow it on their way
west.

The picture at the top of this post shows the Missouri River
at Fort Osage, which was one of the sites we saw while on vacation. The
original fort was built under the direction of William Clark. (Yes,
that’s the Clark from Lewis and Clark. He noticed the location while on his
expedition west and thought it would be a good place for an outpost.) The fort
functioned as both a military compound to foster good relations with the
Indians and a trading post between 1808 and 1827. The second picture shows the current buildings,
which are a reproduction.

River travel
wasn’t the only way west, of course. Another of our sightseeing
stops was at the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri,
which is dedicated to the three overland trails that began at or near
Independence: the Santa Fe Trail, the California Trail, and the Oregon Trail.

Heading west meant leaving extended family and friends
behind, and the parting at journey’s beginning was often the last time they saw
each other. But that didn’t mean the pioneers forgot the people they left
behind, and they made use of every opportunity to send or receive letters. How
those letters arrived changed over time, but for a year and a half (from April
1860 to October 1861), they travelled by Pony Express.

St. Joseph, Missouri, has a Pony Express Museum located in
the original Pony Express stable (partially reconstructed after a fire). There
were Pony Express stations all along the way where riders changed horses several
times before they handed the mail pouch off to another rider.

The Pony Express service was inaugurated with a race between
mail heading west and mail heading east. Both left on April 3, 1860 and took
ten days, but the westbound mail arrived in Sacramento before the eastbound
mail arrived in St. Joseph. They didn’t leave at the same time, however, so
I’m not sure who actually won.

The last two pictures show the Pony Express Museum/Stable
and a tableau of the start of the race from St. Joseph.

I may be a Midwestern girl at heart, but I'm still fascinated by the lure of the West.﻿